Examining the examiners: The state of senior secondary English examinations in Australia

Abstract

This paper investigates the language of examination reports for senior secondary English courses in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. A combination of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is used to examine the types of knowledge and knower that are valued in examinations; and how language is used to describe successful and less successful writing, and the candidates who produce these texts. The analysis suggests that subject English values an élite code (at least, in examination settings), in which both an ‘insightful’ approach to texts and skilled writing justifying analysis is valued; and that students who are unable to take up these discursive practices are imagined as lazy and callow. The paper concludes with implications for teachers and examiners, arguing that teachers must make students aware of the ‘dual-sided’ nature of subject English, and that examiners should be cognisant of potential bias in their view of responses and their writers.